House Springs, MO

House Springs, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury prevent you from participating in the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in House Springs, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to up your game, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to taking ski vacations, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our certified House Springs, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to guide you through techniques that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is vitally important to many House Springs, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, kayaking, and more. Furthermore, committing to an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, degenerative brain diseases, anxiety, and many types of cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed House Springs, MO physical therapists allow you to come back as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention specialists can help you reduce the risk of further injury by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, for both healing from and preventing injury, have been prove to work and are developed uniquely for each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in House Springs, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your active lifestyle, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in House Springs, MO

Injuries generally fall into two categories:

  1. Repetitive demand injuries are injuries that occur when a part of the body repeats the same motion time and time again. They are common in overhead athletes such as raquetball or shotput and pole-vaulters and typically reveal themselves with joint pain.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, such as rotator cuff tears, can result from either overuse or acute trauma. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

Injury Prevention House Springs, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near House Springs

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in House Springs, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because your soft tissue, bones, and joints cannot hold up under the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three chief causes of why your body cannot handle an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is crucial to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can cause an overreliance on one set of muscles, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and the weaker muscles will become tired faster, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by insufficient muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong bicep and weak tricep, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can result in:

Personalized injury prevention with our knowledgeable physical therapists in House Springs, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by a range of musculoskeletal issues. Symptoms include:

  • Joint mobility restrictions
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Poor coordination
  • Lessened balance

At our initial injury prevention appointment in House Springs, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your physician or any other medical professionals treating you, we’ll create a customized treatment plan based on empirically-backed research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who spend a lot of time doing the same activity. People who play sports and other physically active people can have postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in certain poses necessary for a given activity. Correct posture refers to proper positioning of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which disrupts communication between your brain and body and makes it harder to attain ideal motion health. It causes injuries through:

  • Muscle weakness
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Poor positioning
  • Joint mobility limitations
  • Poor muscle recruitment

By helping you understand the best practices for posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your vertebrae remain in place.



How to Prevent Injury in House Springs, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to reduce that risk. No one precaution is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your desired activity level:

  • Take a rest — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will encourage your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you have a more modest activity level, take it easy for the few hours after an activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
  • Wear protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities helps you avoid injuries like bruises or brain injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your House Springs, MO physician or physical therapist may advise stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
  • Increase muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the rigors of heavy activity. Our House Springs, MO injury prevention specialists will work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you love.
  • Increase flexibility — Increasing your flexibility contributes to injury prevention in three way:
    1. It improves your range of motion, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to handle more dramatic positions.
    2. It boosts circulation, which allows for nourishing blood to flow to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
    3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an an essential part of injury prevention.

    According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that require sudden twists and movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

  • Use correct technique — In every sport, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you get be the best athlete you can be but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to avoid a head injury, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and evaluate how to both improve your performance and prevent injury.
  • Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is sore, that means that body part is telling your brain that something is wrong. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense training session, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though gritting through pain is often seen as a valiant act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could make that injury worse and leave you off the field or court for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing urgent care, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
  • Play by the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules to help prevent injury. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against coming from behind in soccer, and even the presence of bike lanes are examples of rules that were adopted to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
  • Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before starting another season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a professional physical therapist in House Springs, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention House Springs, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near House Springs

Injury Prevention for Older House Springs, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care visits and more than 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that accumulate over time can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints strong. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, stability, flexibility, and proper posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in House Springs, MO include:

House Springs, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can lead to a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same happiness. The experienced House Springs, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind confident that you can safely return to the activities you love. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Schedule an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention specialists in House Springs, MO.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
  • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
  • Acute Injury Management
  • Chronic Injury Management
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • DorsaVi Video Motion Analysis
  • Vestibular Therapy and Post-Concussion Rehabilitation
  • Trigger Point Dry Needling
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Lauren Huckstep
Clinic Director, PT, DPT, CSCS, Astym Cert.
Annmarie Koenen
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

Injuries and pain shouldn’t keep you from moving and doing the things you love.